how to make movies smaller?

[DBZFYAM]

I'm looking for almost a week for a program which can make some of my avi, mpg movies smaller. Since I want to upload some to my own site and I don't really want to upload the original files, because they're 270MB each... Does anyone know a program which can lower the size to about 60MB? Please let me know. Thanks.

[reboot]

Virtualdub. Change codec, minimize bitrate.
Really poor quality output, but might be enough for the web.

[DBZFYAM]

Thanks . I'll try it.

[friend2u]

EO VIDEO offers a free media player (divx, mpeg, avi, etc) and comes with a bundled joiner and converter. It features drag and drop and has a fairly easy learning curve. The nice feature is that the player,converter an djoiner are all tabbed so you can switch between them quickly. You are best converting to Divx using 5.1 codec (which EO Video provides). It also does batches so if you have 10 mpeg or avi files you just drag and drop them in the panel and minimize EO Video letting it task the 10 or more files while you use your computer for whatever you desire! The player is free to keep and the joiner, converter are trial for 30 days. You can purchase a key to unlock the converter, joiner for $34.95 which also gives youo free updates all the way from current version 1.36 to 3.0. I tis a very nice utility indeed!

[friend2u]

Sorry..almost forgot...here is the URL for EO Video.

http://www.eo-video.com/

[DBZFYAM]

I tried it with VirtualDub and the quality is indeed very poor. WHen I try to make it a bit better quality, the filesize increases dramatically. I'll try out EO Video. I hope it can make it small and good quality (thanks friend2u). I also saw a site which converted movies to reaplayer format (from 200MB to 50-60MB). The quality was pretty good. Does anyone know how to do this? Or can this also be done with EO Video (or in a other file format).

[DBZFYAM]

I just tried out EO Video, but when I want to convert a movie, it gives the error 'Converter module can't be started. (Err=30212 - 0). Converter/Joiner engine closed'. I tried reinstalling it but it still gives that error. Does somebody know why this happens? Or does someone else have a other program which can make movies smaller?

[canario]

Try resizing the movie. There´s a filter for that in VirtualDub. That will make your resolution smaller, and the size will too.

[reboot]

Wrong. Resolution has nothing to do with filesize.
I can have a movie that is 720x640 and it will be the same filesize if I reduce it to 352x240 in virtualdub at the same bitrate.
It's bitrate that matters.
Smaller movies means lower bitrate means poor quality.

[DBZFYAM]

Yeah, I just tried it and it became even larger with lower quality (original: 275MB. output: 460MB)... I also tried to change the bitrate (from 29 to 15 or 19), but it doesn't go very smooth...

[megamachine]

Ulead Video Studio often comes bundled with digital cameras and capture devices, and I've found it useful for doing what you need. There are a range of output files possible, including RAM, MOV, WMV, MPG, and you can have a fair amount of control on file size. The downside is you have to buy it if you can't get a bundled CD.

[canario]

Sorry for the wrong idea...

[anonymez]

am i right in guessing they are dragonball episodes?
anyway, if you want the best quality at 60mb, use gordian knot.
Just today i encoded a dbz episode from 115mb to 40mb, (avi to divx) with very little loss in quality.
just convert your mpg files into avi files, then run them through gordian knot... check out the guides at www.divx-digest.com

good luck

[DBZFYAM]

Megamachine, I tried out the trial and it works great! I only have to find the right combination of sound and quality. Ziadost, thanks for the tip. I'll try out that one to (just downloaded it). You almost guessed right, Hikaru No Go and Naruto episodes. Thank you all for the help and I'll post another message here to let you know which works best for me (gordian knot or ulead video studio). I'm very impressed btw with the result from ulead video studio (looks exactly like the original file), onlt the file is a bit larger when I increase the sound quality (from 40MB to 120MB!). Thanks again!

[megamachine]

Glad to have been of help! With a little experimentation, you can find the right combination of frame rate and other factors to tailor your output files to a variety of formats for your web site. If you want DivX encoded AVI's, though, Gordian Knot is the way to go.